After touring the world and performing to stadium crowds, it was a surprisingly rare opportunity for 700 Sydneysiders to be greeted with an extremely intimate performance outside the Opera House earlier this morning. After winning tickets in a ballot, these fans were gifted with a rare opportunity to see the band up close and personal as they performed Yellow for Channel 7’s Sunrise, before playing tracks exclusively for the crowd, such as Viva La Vida, Paradise, Charlie Brown, and many more.

The breathtaking backdrop was somewhat lessened by the poor weather and distinctive lack of Sunrise; however, the 7:30AM performance showcased the band’s true performing colours. They are not only able to entertain stadium crowds with intense light shows and paper butterflies, but also to make a crowd of 700 feel as if they were on stage themselves.

Bringing along his father for the ride, Chris Martin was briefly upstaged by his old man, reports The Daily Telegraph, instantly becoming a crowd favourite. Unfortunately, however, these rare, intimate gigs are hard to come by and for those who didn’t attend earlier this morning, it will be a long wait until the next one. Coldplay will return to their normal venues this weekend when they perform in front of 90,000 people at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium on both Saturday and Sunday.